Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Jim McDougall · 27th November 2012, 08:52 PM

As far as I have known, this kaskara would be among groupings of highly decorated with thuluth weapons which are definitely of the Mahdist period, most of them brought out of the Omdurman period. This is exactly the three channel form of blade termed Masri (Rodd, 1926) and shown in Briggs (1965) as a Hausa form blade. In Briggs the thuluth, crescent moons and channels are much the same.
The kaskara of this type I have is also the same, thuluth motif, and most notably the brass hilt. Discussions with David Edge many years ago (Ive had this sword about 30 years) suggested that the brass was likely oriented toward native superstitions concerning iron etc. Most thuluth on these swords seems to be rather linear motif 'based' on either Quranic verses or Islamic phrases as I have understood, and while not directly translatable, served temporally to non literate natives as powerfully imbued swords.

It would seem to me that the term 'cast' may have been semantically misused possibly in place of forged. Most of these native blades, as noted by Ed Hunley (1984) and Reed (1987) were using steel from old lorry springs or railroad materials in post Mahdist years. It is inclear exactly how many blades were native forged in the Mahdist years, but there were considerable numbers of European blades in circulation. This is especially notable as most swords were only afforded to those of stature tribally, while the majority of tribal weapons until the advent of the Mahdist movement were spears and simple forms, many even threw stones.As noted captured weapons, mostly rifles from Egyptian forces began to be used from earlier battles and attrition from those of fallen warriors certainly accounted for many. The Hadendoa and many of those tribes already had swords, but it is unclear exactly how the varying components of Mahdist forces were armed with swords specifically as far as I have known.

27th November 2012, 08:52 PM	#7
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,753	As far as I have known, this kaskara would be among groupings of highly decorated with thuluth weapons which are definitely of the Mahdist period, most of them brought out of the Omdurman period. This is exactly the three channel form of blade termed Masri (Rodd, 1926) and shown in Briggs (1965) as a Hausa form blade. In Briggs the thuluth, crescent moons and channels are much the same. The kaskara of this type I have is also the same, thuluth motif, and most notably the brass hilt. Discussions with David Edge many years ago (Ive had this sword about 30 years) suggested that the brass was likely oriented toward native superstitions concerning iron etc. Most thuluth on these swords seems to be rather linear motif 'based' on either Quranic verses or Islamic phrases as I have understood, and while not directly translatable, served temporally to non literate natives as powerfully imbued swords. It would seem to me that the term 'cast' may have been semantically misused possibly in place of forged. Most of these native blades, as noted by Ed Hunley (1984) and Reed (1987) were using steel from old lorry springs or railroad materials in post Mahdist years. It is inclear exactly how many blades were native forged in the Mahdist years, but there were considerable numbers of European blades in circulation. This is especially notable as most swords were only afforded to those of stature tribally, while the majority of tribal weapons until the advent of the Mahdist movement were spears and simple forms, many even threw stones.As noted captured weapons, mostly rifles from Egyptian forces began to be used from earlier battles and attrition from those of fallen warriors certainly accounted for many. The Hadendoa and many of those tribes already had swords, but it is unclear exactly how the varying components of Mahdist forces were armed with swords specifically as far as I have known.